Image: Rick Stevens
What’s more adorable than a Pygmy Hippopotamus? A baby Pygmy Hippopotamus! Taronga’s tiny little ‘river horse’ is an explosion of cute.
The latest addition to the Taronga family, “˜Kambiri’, made her first public debut a month after her birth and will continue to venture into the exhibit for brief periods of time over the next few weeks.
The female infant was born to mother “˜Petre’ and father “˜Timmy’ on the 26th of June and will be the first Pygmy Hippopotamus to be raised by her mother at Taronga in 20 years. The staff at Taronga have described Kambiri as a strong, healthy calf, weighing 5.3kg when she was born, and report that she is now growing rapidly, putting on 300g a day.
Pygmy Hippopotamuses are found in West Africa and are extremely rare, with fewer than three thousand remaining in the wild. Kambiri, a Nigerian name meaning “˜allow me to join this family’, is the fifth hippo to born in Australia in the last 20 years and is an important addition to the region’s population.
Visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of Kambiri are warned that they may need to be patient, as she needs to perfect the art of swimming before spending long periods of time in the enclosure.
In the meantime you can Kambiri’s YouTube debut here.
oT
September 22, 2010
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